The effects of the menopause on your working pattern….a blog by Healthy, Wise & Well offering solutions for the workplace.

“Our survey found that 84 per cent of respondents felt that their productivity was reduced but only 20 per cent took any time off work to deal with the symptoms. This is costing over £ 5,000 per person per year in lost productivity ”

As part of the #generationflex campaign we’re talking about the menopause and what a huge life-change this can be for women, especially at work. We talk to Healthy Wise & Well who are an organisation set up to help businesses manage the menopause better at work by providing brilliant workplace solutions. They’ve written a blog for us here.

Millions of women are suffering menopause misery because simple steps are not being taken to alleviate common symptoms including panic attacks, palpitations, hot flashes, and extreme tiredness. My latest research, involving a survey of over 1000 women, shows a staggering 80 per cent of women report suffering moderate to severe menopausal symptoms, which can last between seven to 10 years, which is dramatically affecting the quality of their lives. This is far more than was previously thought.

Although it was accepted that eight out of ten women had some symptoms, only a quarter of these were believed to have severe symptoms. What we are seeing though is much worse, with women reporting a significant impact on their work lives, home lives and relationships.

Not least, this is crippling women in the workplace, affecting their self-esteem and confidence, as well as their productivity. Our survey found that 84 per cent of respondents felt that their productivity was reduced but only 20 per cent took any time off work to deal with the symptoms.

Industry is also losing out as a large section of the workforce becomes incapacitated for over a week each month. This represents 280 million less productive work days per year in the UK.

Yet over 90 per cent of peri-menopausal women, including those with severe symptoms, could be symptom free if doctors and health care workers followed NICE guidelines to support women to make lifestyle and dietary changes. These changes, which are cheap and easy to administer, involve supporting women’s with  advice on nutrition and correcting imbalances of key minerals and vitamins. 

Previous research already shows that poor nutrition is widespread among women around the age of 50. In fact, between 50-80 per cent of women have low magnesium stores as well as being deficient in iron, zinc and other compounds that are key to brain health and hormone balance.

But these NICE guidelines are routinely ignored. What we have found is that many doctors and occupational therapists are still poorly educated about how to recognise and treat menopausal symptoms, often misdiagnosing anxiety and panic attacks as signs of ‘burnout’ or stress.

So, all too often women walk out of surgeries with prescriptions for HRT, which is not considered suitable for everyone (and comes with side effects of its own), or anti-depressants. Whilst these will absolutely help some women,  support and guidance on how to adjust their diet and lifestyle should also be offered. Good nutrition, exercise and formal relaxation can protect women against other health issues associated with declining levels of oestrogen including osteoporosis, heart disease as well as depression and stress related anxiety. Women themselves often fail to put two and two together and realise that they are actually suffering from menopausal symptoms. Others perhaps deliberately choose not to report their problems, fearing that they may be ‘downgraded’ at work or even let go.

Health Ministers are appointed with little or no experience in the subject and are reshuffled as soon as they begin to understand what they are dealing with – so nothing really happens quickly. No one is taking the long-term view. That’s why we have set up an online information and support group – our Facebook page has over 10,500 members and is growing every day – to try and help women deal with this issue here and now. I am also launching virtual six week programmes where women spend 6 weeks learning how to overcome their symptoms including choosing the most appropriate dietary changes they need to make, what supplements they need to take for their particular symptoms and simple tips on relaxation, meditation and exercise. Even 20 minutes of relaxation every day (not including TV watching but proper formal relaxation) can help menopause symptoms melt away.

Being 50 should be a cause for celebration! Many women will have successfully navigated the major challenges in life such as career and family. They are at the peak of their powers, the height of their earning capacity and should feel confident about coping with life. Instead, we are seeing lost work days, a hit on the economy, relationships under strain and even breaking up, and a whole cohort of women ARE living in misery.

To find out more about the work Healthy Wise & Well are doing, please visit https://maryonstewart.com